This week, curatorial
advisor Anna Drozdowski interviews Local Dance History Project artist Ishmael
Houston-Jones, offering an inside peek into the creative development of the
artist’s work.
Anna Drozdowski: Tell me about DEAD, in two sentences.
Ishmael
Houston-Jones: When
my late mother saw DEAD for the first time her only comment was, “Bess Truman
isn’t dead.” My reply was, “But she will be one day.”
What was happening in 1980 (or
thereabouts) that was important to your artistic growth? Ishmael: By 1980 I had left Philadelphia. I moved to New York on
Thanksgiving Day 1979. During the 1970s when I lived here, besides the Ballet,
the main players on the dance scene were Group Motion, Zero Moving Co.,
Philadanco, Juba, Arthur Hall’s Afro American Dance Ensemble, South Street
Dance Company, Joan Kerr Dance Company, Sybil Dance
Company and Ann Vachon/Dance Conduit. Toward the end of the decade there was a movement of independent choreographers
many gathered around Terry Fox’s studio in Old City. I taught and rehearsed
there, as did Terry, of course. Jano Cohen, Wendy Hammerstrom, Anne Marie
Mulgrew and others were part of a core of artists centered on the Church Street
Loft. Terry lived there with composer Jeff Cain so there were always many
musicians on the scene as well. At this time Old City was transitioning from
being a rather desolate district of light manufacturing and warehouses to an artists’
neighborhood. It was still possible to find really cheap live/work spaces so
there were a lot of visual artists living and making work in the area.

Ishmael Houston-Jones and Michael Biello today; image by Jacques-Jean Tiziou / www.jjtiziou.net
Published on February 16, 2010 - 1:22pm